Akşener responds to Özdağ's claim that she told him to 'join the AKP': 'Do politics like a man...'
İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener responded on social media to claims that she had suggested Selçuk Özdağ join the AKP. Akşener shared a post on her own account that was originally written by İYİ Party MP Metin Ergün to respond to Özdağ.
12punto
A response has come to the claims made by Selçuk Özdağ, Deputy Chairman of the New Way Party parliamentary group, regarding İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener. Özdağ alleged that before the 2019 local elections, Akşener offered him the candidacy for Manisa Metropolitan Municipality and requested that he join the AKP once he won.
According to Özdağ's claim, Akşener advised him by saying, ''You are winning, go be the candidate, then join the AK Party.'' Akşener did not respond to Özdağ's claims directly.
According to the report by Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu from 12punto, İYİ Party Muğla MP Metin Ergün responded to these claims in a post on his social media account. Ergün stated that Özdağ had abandoned his candidacy due to concerns that the AKP would punish him. He also reminded that Özdağ had previously declared he received candidacy offers from both the İYİ Party and the Felicity Party (Saadet Party).
Ergün used the following expressions in his post:
''The candidacy offer made to Selçuk Özdağ was conveyed by his brother-in-law, İrfan Sönmez. Meral Akşener did not meet with Özdağ face-to-face during this process; she only had a phone conversation.''
WHY DID ÖZDAĞ ABANDON HIS CANDIDACY?
Emphasizing that the person most opposed to the Manisa candidacy within the Nation Alliance during the 2019 local elections was CHP Chair Özgür Özel, Ergün claimed that Özel also wanted Manisa to remain with the CHP. Akşener shared this post by Ergün on her own social media account, providing an indirect response. This move indicated that Akşener did not accept Özdağ's claims.
Ergün noted the following in his post:
"The offer for Selçuk Özdağ's 2019 Manisa candidacy came directly from his brother-in-law, the lawyer İrfan Sönmez.
Our Chair Meral Akşener never met with him face-to-face during this process, and she only held a phone conversation with his brother-in-law.
In fact, while his candidacy was being evaluated, Özdağ abandoned the candidacy because he believed the AK Party would punish him.
Furthermore, there are statements on record from him during this process indicating that he received candidacy offers from both the İYİ Party and the Saadet Party.
The person most opposed to Selçuk Özdağ's Manisa candidacy in the 2019 elections, which were entered as the Nation Alliance, was Özgür Özel. At that time, Özel argued that Manisa should be left to the CHP.
In short, our only advice to this friend is that instead of trying to stay in the news by slandering our party and our Founding Chair, he should come out and do politics like a 'man'."